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Boston Marathon explosions: Four stories of courage and kindness

Amid the horror and confusion of the Boston Marathon, were stories of kindness and courage:

Dr. Peter Fagenholz of Massachussetts General Hospital worked through the night on victims of the blasts. (BBC STILL FROM VIDEO)

DR. PETER FAGENHOLZ

He worked through the night performing surgeries on victims suffering the kind of injuries not seen outside war zones.

When Dr. Peter Fagenholz, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, was asked how he coped with the stress, his response was cool and professional.

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“This is work,” he told reporters gathered around him outside the hospital, still wearing surgical scrubs and a white coat. “When this happens we just go to work.”

In the midst of the horror and confusion, Fagenholz’s air of calm professionalism as he explained how patients were recovering was reassuring, and earned him praise on Twitter.

The hospital received 31 victims, several of whom who had lost their limbs. Fagenholz’s oldest patient was 71.

He shed some light on the intense speculation on whether the bombs were packed with material intended to turn into shrapnel.

“Some people have already asked if there were BBs or parts of bombs and I just don’t think we are able to say whether they were bits of metal placed there intentionally or they were from the environment,” he said.

The doctor has experience working in difficult conditions. After studying at New York University’s medical school, where he graduated in 2002, he worked in Nepal, where he met his wife Alice, also a doctor. Fagenholz taught in Rwanda before taking up his post in Boston.

“It’s just depressing, you know, that it is intentional,” he said of the explosions.

He is a football star and cancer survivor who helps children with brain cancer.

Joe Andruzzi, former New England Patriots offensive lineman, can add another item to his all-American hero credentials: carrying victims to safety at the Boston Marathon. A photograph of Andruzzi carrying in his massive arms a distraught woman went wild on social media on Tuesday.

When the bombs went off, Andruzzi was near the finish line with his wife Jen to cheer on a team of runners associated with his charitable foundation, which raises funds for pediatric cancer research and gives financial assistance to victims’ families.

Andruzzi was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma in 2007 but is cancer-free.

He is no stranger to national tragedy, either. All three of his brothers are firefighters in New York City and one survived the Sept. 11 attacks.

Andruzzi released a statement after the marathon.

“The spotlight should remain firmly on the countless individuals — first responders, medics, EMTs, runners who crossed the finish line and kept on running straight to give blood, and the countless civilians who did whatever they could to save lives,” he said. “They were the true heroes.”

CARLOS ARREDONDO

The Costa Rican immigrant being called the “man in the hat” had a life full of tragedy and drama even before the Boston bombings.

One of Carlos Arredondo’s sons, Alexander, a lance corporal, was killed during the Iraq War. A second son, Brian, later committed suicide. To honour them, he was handing out 200 American flags near the finish line on Monday.

Arredondo, 53, who has Red Cross disaster training, jumped the barricades to save a young man who had both of his legs blown off.

“I concentrated on just the young man, I tied up his leg and talked to him,” he said. His sweatshirt sleeves were soaked in blood.

Arredondo said he used torn pieces of a sweater as tourniquets on the man’s legs to stop the bleeding. He put the victim in a wheelchair and pushed him to a medical tent. In a video filmed by the Boston Globe, Arredondo, wearing his cowboy hat, he can be seen rushing to the victims.

“There were so many people begging for help but I could only help one person,” he said.

Arredondo shook as he spoke and clutched one of the American flags he was handing out to runners and spectators.

It was his last flag.

ALI HATFIELD

It was a day when Americans closed ranks and looked after each other.

And the experience of Ali Hatfield, a young runner far from her home near Kansas City, Mo., encapsulated the best of the country’s community spirit.

Hatfield, 25, had crossed the finish line with two friends, the trio holding hands in euphoria at completing the prestigious marathon, when the bombs went off.

In panic, they sprinted to their hotel a block away but they were soon evacuated, she wrote on her blog. They found themselves wandering the street with nowhere to go.

“We found a spot on the ground and huddled together,” she wrote. In a photograph taken that moment, Hatfield looks dazed and exhausted as a good Samaritan pours a cup of orange juice.

Residents approached runners with drinks and blankets. Some offered their homes to those who needed a washroom, she wrote. A woman took Hatfield and her friends to her home to keep warm until it was safe enough to return to the hotel.

“It was one of those moments when you say to yourself, people are good,” she wrote.

Hatfield’s experience was repeated all over Boston.

“To the stranger who took me into her home, gave me soup and tea to stop my shaking and a phone to call home, thank you,” tweeted a Boston-based mom, Judith U.

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